Editor’s Note: This originally appeared as a post in our private Facebook group called Paying for College 101. Retired admissions director and author Peter Pitts is a frequent group contributor, and we publish some of his posts as articles to benefit a wider audience. He’s an advocate of the value of small colleges.
Does your student plan to transfer from a community college?
Students who stay home for their first years to earn their AA degree and then transfer to a 4-year college sometimes feel shortchanged—why do colleges give the larger scholarships to students who begin as freshmen? And, furthermore, why is it so hard to find information about transfer merit scholarships on college websites?
I did research on hundreds of websites and have developed a list of 70 colleges that I think you might want to check out.
A Few Caveats Before You Begin
- After reading through college websites, it appears that the range of scholarships for transfer students at most colleges appears to be a big secret! College websites (on the whole) are not user-friendly in this regard. How families navigate these websites is beyond me…I’ve been in higher education for almost 50 years, and it has been troublesome even for me!
- I had to resort to AI to find some of my data, and, as we all know, AI is not perfect. AI struggled with the distinction between scholarships for freshmen and scholarships for transfer students.
- Transfer scholarships depend on many factors. It is not just the student’s GPA. Some scholarships require a GPA of 2.0, others 2.5, and there are even some that require a 3.5. Most have stipulations about how many hours a student can transfer. Some depend on whether they were members of Phi Theta Kappa at their previous college. Some give more if the student lives on campus. Some give more if they enter with an AA. Some give scholarships to all; some are highly selective. Some look at both high school and college grades (and require an interview) for their highest awards. It is really a mixed bag.
- For the few that indicate they offer full tuition scholarships, I know that these colleges are very selective about these kinds of scholarships and often will not even offer them every year.
- All transfer scholarship programs appear to change a bit from year to year, even more than do freshman programs. Transfer scholarship programs tend to be less generous, and they appear to have less transparency (i.e., you will find charts on websites for freshmen to determine their scholarships, but there are very few colleges publishing charts to determine scholarship amounts for transfer students)
- How did I choose my colleges to investigate? I selected this list of colleges based on their financial stability (per 2026 Forbes grades) and the overall grades that Niche has awarded. There are probably hundreds of other colleges that also offer great transfer merit aid, but these were the ones I selected.
Since scholarship amounts are relative to the cost of the college, I actually calculated the approximate percentage of tuition that the top scholarship will cover. 18 of the 70 colleges award their top candidates somewhere between 75% and 100% of their tuition. The other 52 award somewhere between 50% and 74% of their tuition to their top candidates. There was usually a range depending on GPA and other factors. Minimum amounts vary greatly.
Therefore, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of my list. Let me just say that this list of 70 colleges appears to be “at least a good place to start” in looking for transfer scholarships at small private colleges. Your best course of action is to call the transfer admissions counselor at your college choices for up-to-date information.
Most Generous Transfer Merit Scholarships
These 18 colleges award their top candidates somewhere between 75% and 100% of their tuition.
Illinois
- Knox College
- Principia College
- Monmouth College
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
- University of the Cumberlands
Mississippi
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
- Westminster College
- Susquehanna University
- Lycoming College
- Allegheny College
Tennessee
Washington, D.C.
- Trinity Washington University
Michigan
Also Generous Transfer Merit Scholarships
These 52 colleges award somewhere between 50% and 74% of their tuition to their top candidates.
Arkansas
Georgia
- Berry College
- Young Harris College
- Covenant College
Illinois
- Augustana College
- Elmhurst University
- Illinois College
Indiana
- Saint Mary’s College
- Earlham College
- Wabash College
- DePauw University
Iowa
- University of Dubuque
- Saint Ambrose University
- Drake University
Kansas
Kentucky
- Centre College
- Transylvania University
Maryland
- Hood College
- McDaniel College
Massachusetts
- Gordon College
- Bay Path University
Michigan
Minnesota
- College of St. Benedict
- Hamline University
- Mnpls College of Art & Design
- Concordia College–Moorhead
- Saint Catherine University
- St. Olaf College
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Ohio
- College of Wooster
- John Carroll University
- University of Mount Union
- Otterbein University
Oregon
Pennsylvania
- Washington & Jefferson College
- Saint Vincent College
- Mount Aloysius College
Tennessee
Texas
- Austin College
- Wayland Baptist University
- St. Mary’s University
- Southwestern University
- Hardin-Simmons University
Vermont
Virginia
- Hampden-Sydney College
- Hollins University
- Randolph-Macon College
West Virginia
- West Virginia Wesleyan College
Wisconsin
- Lawrence University
- Saint Norbert College
A Final Note
Your best course of action is to call the transfer admissions counselor at your college choices for up-to-date information.